iMac won't wake up

[MikeCaine]

I've just returned from holiday yesterday and powered up my G5 iMac and external Maxtor drives to find that the one that I stored all of my photos on has died and Drive Genius can't fix it

Now, when I want home at lunch time, I find that the iMac won't wake up. Waggling the wired mouse does nothing and pressing keys on the wireless keyboard does nothing either (I noticed the caps lock light didn't come on either which puzzles me)

last time this happened I powered the computer off and then turned it back on, only to find that I'd upset the file system and had to faff around with an archive and install

Any idea what I can do to wake a reluctant iMac?

Cheers

Mike

 

[Ric]

Hi there,

Macs don't really like having the plug pulled...but it doesn't look like you have much choice.

Pull the plug, and remove any attached devices. Then let the Mac boot up...it will possibly take a lot longer 30 minutes or so. If it hasn't booted after an hour then try booting and hold down the 'Command + s' keys to boot into single user mode...then we can run FSCK manually.

regards

Ric

 

[MikeCaine]

Hi Ric

Thanks for that, I'll give it a go this evening. I seem to be having a right do of it since coming back, failed drive and sleepy iMac at home and barfed network and printer problems at work. I'm wondering what else can go wrong today

Mike

 

[MikeCaine]

PS - What's the best order -

A) Turn off iMac and then turn off external drives

B) Turn off external drives and then turn off iMac

 

[MikeCaine]

Hmmm, just tuned it off, disconnected the drives, turned it on, had to paid up the keyboard again, then turned the drives back on and all seems OK - touch wood.

Will see what happens re waking up, was it a one off or a sign of a problem?

 

[Ric]

Hi,

without seeing your logs I'm not sure...

Double check your backups are up to date. Then run Disk Utility from your OS X install DVD to be on the safe side.

More than likely just a one off.

regards

Ric

 

[MikeCaine]

OK, so where I'm up to at the moment...

"Maxtir 500" drive is totally barfed. Have a backup of those files on "Maxtor 300". Start up another spare Maxtor 300 drive and because of problems with iView Media Pro I have to rename it to "Maxtor 500" so the catalog files will work.

iMac still freezes up on me, mainly overnight or when I'm out at work. This reminds me of a previous problem, one that was solved by getting rid of firewire hub.

"Maxtor 300" drives makes horrible noise when starting, much like the failed original "Maxtor 500"

Ask local Mac store and hey suggest tirning off power management and screen saver. Try that an it still freezes

Do an archive and install, but iMac still frozen next day

"Maxtor 300" makes horrible noise whan restarting system. Copy all files off that to my wifes PC and then turn it off

I'm now wondering if a iffy external firewire device can cause the iMac to lock up so will leave "Maxtor 300" off for a while and see what happens.

Why should 2 x Maxtor firewire drives go off on me when turned off for 15 days while on holiday?

Any thoughts on any of the above appreciated as I'm really worried about losing my 20,000 photo library

Mike